Three vie for one of UK's worst estates

Shillam + Smith, PRP Architects and HTA Architects in frame to win £70m 10-year redevelopment of deprived east London estate.

THREE architects have been shortlisted to masterplan the £70m regeneration of one of Britain's most deprived housing estates, in east London.

Shillam + Smith, PRP Architects and HTA Architects are in competition to oversee the 10-year redevelopment of the Ocean Estate in Tower Hamlets. A final decision will be made at the end of the month and the masterplan is due for completion by next summer.

Helen Fisher, project director for the client, Ocean New Deal for Communities, said the scheme would be a mixture of refurbishment and new build. She said: "We want to go through an extensive consultation process to deal with which blocks are to be demolished and which will be refurbished.

"It is a very open brief at this stage but we want the masterplan to deal extensively with issues such as sustainability." The three plans will be shown to residents at a public exhibition tomorrow.

Fisher added that the £70m earmarked for the scheme could increase during the project and noted that although the scheme would focus on housing it would also look at space set aside for the community and transport. She said: "It will be quite broad brush."

Ocean NDC is working with Tower Hamlets council and Stratford Redevelopment Partnership on the project. A tender for the masterplanner was issued in August.

The DETR announced last summer that it would put £800m into seven new deal for communities partnerships.

A shortlist of three teams is also competing for another of these: a £40m redevelopment in neighbouring Newham. This is designed to trigger the regeneration of the surrounding district.

In addition, a team including HTA, Mace and EDAW have been appointed to masterplan a south London housing estate. The team won the competition for the £200m Aylesbury Estate project in July.

Other estates in the queue for regeneration are in Birmingham, Leicester, Bristol, Manchester and Middlesbrough.